Keynes was a capitalist, but his main theories were aimed at controlling/modulating an Economy to prevent excesses - such as the Great Depression of 1929.

As for 'total spending', a nation's GDP growth is one of the primary metrics, a measure of national inflation, deflation, stagflation, slow growth, etc.

As for Capitalism, b-schools have said that a capitalist company is about 110% more productive than a non-profit. Stated differently, the profit-motive is the most powerful way known to focus a group (10. 100, 1000, 10,000) of people, they are all working in the same direction for a common cause, a main factor in why capitalist societies are so much more successful than socialist nations (Modern Academia has made 'profit' a pejorative, "they are just in it for the money" - that stick-in-the-spokes has slowed the US Economy for about 25 years - but capitalism continues to prove itself.

One of the 'cleaner' studies of Capitalism/Socialism comes from Germany. East/West Germany were walled apart for 28 years, a full generation. Identical societies, they came from identical K-12 schools, had identical histories, cultures. When the Wall came down, both sides were astonished at the differences - one side a rich, happy, bustling,middle class, the other side a dull, beaten-down poor culture living in poverty (and not realizing it because their generation was born into it).

Fri Jul 07, 2017 4:56 pm

KuznecMember

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Well, let's say money is evil. What alternative to money can exist at the moment? I personally do not see anything like that.

Thu Jul 13, 2017 7:25 pm

oldguySenior Member

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quote: Well, let's say money is evil.

The saying is "the love of money is the root of evil". That's not the same as "money is evil".

Mankind existed for the first 100,000 years w/o money, each person hunted, gathered, butchered, built, whatever he needed for the day. And was able to store some things for a few days - grain, etc. The downside was that you had to do everything yourself, you had no way to hire a baker, a tailor, a butcher, a carpenter, a doctor, a knife maker, a hammer maker, yada. Money was a major contributor to our way of life - each of us can labor at what we do best - and buy stuff from others who sell what they do best. And we don't need to store stuff - ie, we can convert our labor to money, then go to the store and buy some milk and bacon. Way easier than spending the day butchering a hog and milking a cow.